Resilient Starc and Lyon laugh last, but Australia’s biggest mountain awaits

October 28, 2026 — 5:00am

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Cape Town: In 1998, Sri Lanka’s captain Arjuna Ranatunga sent England in to bat on a flat pitch at the Oval, to the general surprise of many. Alec Stewart’s men promptly ran up 445.

Five days and a 10-wicket win later, Ranatunga walked away looking like a genius, explaining that he had not wanted to ask his ace spinner Muttiah Muralitharan to bowl for two innings in a row. Muralitharan took 16 wickets for the match.

Australia are a long way from emulating Ranatunga’s team, but they ended day one at Newlands in a position where a couple of good days’ batting can deliver them the series under the glorious gaze of Table Mountain.

Mitchell Starc, with figures of 6-72 including a Wasim Akram-esque burst of four wickets in nine balls to end the day with the Proteas bowled out for 329, spoke with typical bluntness about one of those days of Test cricket that will live long in the memory.

“We can delete the first session,” he said. “They took the game to us in the first session. Clearly not our best stuff, and I think after lunch we were back on the money.”

There was undoubtedly some rhyme and reason to Pat Cummins’ decision to send South Africa in on an extremely........

© The Sydney Morning Herald